Told you I was no good at this!

So, it's now been 2 1/2 months since blogging, and even then it was only pictures! I am so not good at keeping up with these things. BUT, in trying to be a more organized mother (more on why later :), I'm going to get back into this, hopefully, but it really is hard, because we don't do much!

So, again with the organization, I was the MOST together, organized person ever, until having Atalie. And now, for some reason, I am so NOT organized. For example..one thing I'm working on...printing pictures. Can I just tell you, before this week, it had been OVER A YEAR since I printed pictures, yes Atalie was 4 months old last time I printed, that's horrible! So that's my goal this week...to catch up on printing pictures and getting them saved to disc & deleting the million pics I have on the computer. Next week I think I'll work on getting the scrapbooking together, yes, that will take longer than a week, but I have to get started...our wedding one isn't even finished, let alone Atalie's being started!

Atalie will be 19 months on Saturday...WHAT? 19 months, you're kidding me, no way, there is no way on earth my BABY is 19 months!! Can I just tell you it kind of saddens me that it goes so fast? When looking at pictures (you know, since I'm printing them & all!), I actually miss those days, colic, sleeplessness, all of it, call me crazy, but those are special moments too, and it just goes too fast. I do love this age though, Atalie is AH-MAZING...she is talking so much, saying pretty much anything, repeating everything & her understanding is beyond what I even think is possible sometimes. I love her so much that I'm certain some days my heart is literally going to bust.

Other than that, life is good, I'm a single parent again (not really, in the summer it's like being a single parent, Jason usually puts in about 70+ hours a week), so that stinks, especially for Atalie, she misses him. But it's job security & that's wonderful.

Pictures

Here are some pics over the last week or so..

Easter

Easter was SOOOO wonderful this year! Atalie did so good with everything. She was even calm during nursery at church! I'm going to post several pics. All are from Easter day. The first are opening her basket at home. The second set is at church of Jason playing. The rest are at Jason's parents for Easter egg hunt and dinner! Enjoy!

















The Gauntt Family


On the way home, all worn out & ready for bed!

Cindy the body builder!!

One of our greatest friends has done a few body building shows before, but we didn't know her then, so this was the first show she has done that we've been to. It was fun and Cindy won her class. In her last show, she won overall, but wasn't allowed to be in overall this show, because her class (Masters), aren't allowed to compete in overall. Anyway, she would have took overall too, Cindy blew the girl who won it out of the water!




Here she is with the other 2 in her class


And with her FIRST place trophy


Congrats Cindy!

Best birthday ever!

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was great! I had so many texts, emails, and phone calls telling me happy birthday, and that means SO MUCH to me! Thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday, it truly touches my heart that so many remembered and took the time out of their busy schedule to wish me a great one!

Jason did great this year! I woke up to a pot of coffee already made & a card sitting next to it...it was the sweetest card ever and had me crying! Then, once I got on my computer, I found this on my wallpaper...(he's called me this since we started dating!!)


Then I check my emails and he sent me an email instructing me to find this....


How sweet is that?! But that wasn't it! Jason always comes home for lunch, so he came home, ate lunch, then laid on the couch, and I asked if he was going back to work, he said "yeah, I got to go to work....in the morning!" So he took the rest of the day off!! I was so excited!

We didn't do anything else, but we have a date tomorrow. Jason's taking me to lunch and to see Fast & Furious....I am so excited. I loved the first one, and I LOOOOVVVEEEE Vin Diesel (and I'm watching him on Regis & Kelly right now...yay!! He's so sexy!). Anyway, so I am really excited about tomorrow.

So, this was the best birthday in a LONG time! Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen!

Life...

I just felt like blogging, nothing in particular! But since we have lots of out-of-town family that reads our blog, thought I'd just ramble a little about what's been going on here!

Poor Atalie has an ear infection :( but I think she's finally feeling better. We went to the doctor Thursday, so she's on her 3rd day of antibiotic, and she didn't wake up with a fever this morning...it's been running about 102, poor thing! She's saying a lot more words now, seems to pick up almost anything, if we say it enough! She has started saying 'mommy'!! I love it! She's been saying mama for awhile, but there's just something about that "mommy"! We're pretty sure she said chicken for the first time a couple days ago too, that one surprised us....but we do eat chicken a lot! I would say she's saying 1-2 new words a week now, it's great, we love hearing her talk!

Jason's work is going well, they are bidding like crazy, not getting very many of them (there are SO MANY people bidding the same jobs now), so please just keep Jason, and Seminole Civil in your prayers, they need work coming in! He's also started playing for our new church. Of course, as most of you know, he's GREAT, and he's even more great when he uses his talent for the Lord. Last week was his first week playing, and I think he left many people astounded. He's pretty much been asked to play full-time. YAY! He loves that.

I'm back to working from home. We feel so blessed to have that opportunity. Although, we've been throwing around the idea of me getting another part-time job out of the home, just to bring in a little extra, my job is very part-time, and very flexible, and until it really picks up, it may be nice to have another PT job, just to throw some extra $$ in the bank! Plus, my mom will be living with us in just a few short weeks, so we have a built-in babysitter, it won't be so bad if I work a couple days a week....if I can even find something!

One more thing....WHERE IS SPRING?! I want it to be 70s, everyday, and we had 40s this week, what the heck is that about?! Oh, and my birthday is next week, WHAT?! I swear, since having a baby, my birthday seems to come and go, I really don't even notice it anymore! I had to schedule an appointment, and they said "ok, next Thursday, April 2nd"....I was like WAIT? April 2nd, that's my birthday, it's NEXT WEEK ALREADY?!?! I didn't say that, but that's what I was thinking. AND I'm quickly approaching 30....oh Lord! At least Jason turns 30 a month and 10 days before me...that gives me just over a month to rag him about being in his 30s and I'll still be in my 20s, hahahaha!

Love you all!

Just to share the cutest picture (and baby) EVER...

Gettin so big

Atalie is now 15 months! We went to her well check on Thursday, and she is doing great! She is 23 lbs 10 oz (70th percentile), 30 1/2 inches (50th percentile). Her speech is a little ahead, which is great! She uses about 15 words consistently, but probably knows 20-25. I can't believe how fast she is growing, I feel like it was just yesterday! Here are a few pics from the last week or so!

She's bound to be a musician!








This was this morning, I have NO IDEA how she got in there!




And just cause I can't believe that she's 15 months, here is one from a year ago today, Atalie 3 months old!

3/14/08

What a beautiful weekend!

This weekend was the best! The weather was PERFECT! I have some pics I'll put up tomorrow (hopefully). All 3 of us just absolutely loved it! Yesterday we just hung out as a family and enjoyed the day. Today, of course we went to our awesome church and had a great service, as usual! And this evening, we went to a (new) friends house and had a blast! It was great hanging out with them and their adorable little girl! They all 3 are super sweet and lots of fun! Thanks for having us Bryan, Kelda & Kalleigh!

So, the beautiful weather continues for a few days, I'm excited and love it....pretty weather brightens my mood! Love you all and God bless!

The next step

I guess that's what you would call it! But it seems to be that time, the time for me to go back to work. I'm very sad about it. And it's not something we HAVE to do, we are fine on Jason's salary, but we are to the point where we want some extras, different classes for Atalie, vacations, clothes (Jason & I haven't really bought new clothes since I was pregnant!!), and of course, even more stuff for Atalie! So, since it's not a must, I can pretty much do whatever. So I thought the best was to go back to being a hairstylist. I had an interview today, and was somewhat hoping it would work out because they are open until 9pm, so I could work evenings and still be home with Atalie, which is what we are shooting for, finding something in the evenings. One of their requirements are you HAVE to work every other Sunday. Jason and I aren't ok with that, that is church day, God's day, and our family day. So I won't be taking that job, and as we all know, jobs are hard to come by right now, but we will continue praying and seeking God in this situation!

We've also discussed possibly watching a child for someone, since I have MUCH experience and background with children, it makes sense, and I can still be home, but one, how limited will I be? and where in the heck could we find someone we know who needs childcare?! We don't really know many people in the area, so that makes that a little harder!

Anyway, we know God will provide, and we have all our trust in Him!

(Oh, and P.S....I'm secretly happy the job interview didn't work out!)

Our little fish....

Atalie started swim classes today...she LOVED it! She did very well with the "exercises", so hopefully by the end of this (8 weeks), she'll be a little swimmer (ok, as much as a 17 month old can be!). We both met some new friends and had a great time! Here are a few pics from the day.


Listening intently on instructions :)




Mommy, you're crazy, I'm not blowing bubbles like that!

And the winner is....

So look March 9th for her picture to be shown on Regis and Kelly....because she's definitely going to be in the top 10!!

Which picture should we use for the beautiful baby contest?

#1


#2


#3


#4
None of them, try again!

She's a natural!

Of course! How couldn't she be with such a talented drummer for a daddy!

We really are boring people!

Ok, in now trying to keep up with this blog, I realize that we really are boring people. It's been more than a week and I still have nothing interesting to write about! Jason works 50 hours a week (at least), Atalie & I hang out at home, Jason gets home and we eat, play, give Atalie a bath, she goes to bed at 8, then we get in the bed and watch tv, an hour later, we're going to bed! And this is 7 days a week! BORING! Not that I (we) mind. We like this life, we enjoy it, but I have realized it doesn't make for very good reading! Of course, I could use it to completely brag on Atalie, cause I could do that all day everyday. She's constantly learning and doing new things, she's smart as a whip, and beautiful to boot! But, I'm sure that would get old to many (or all) of you eventually! So, as I keep you all up on our boring life, I hope you all stick around, cause you never know, one day we may get interesting!

Yes! A breakthrough!

As many of you know, Atalie is very....attached to me (and Jason). She definitely has that separation anxiety/stranger danger going on. I'm sure most of it has to do with me staying home with her, but I feel like it's fine, that one day, she'll be better. It's still worth it to us for me to be home with her. Anyway, our local library has story time once a week. The first time we went was last week. It didn't go so well. Not that it went bad, but she was TERRIFIED! I would say there were at least 30 kids and 15 adults. She had that I'm about to cry look on her face the entire hour, but only cried once. She would not get off my lap & did not want to participate in the craft.

So yesterday we went back and she did AWESOME! She never looked scared, walked around some, clapped along with the songs, and even sat at the table with the other kids and colored!

I was so happy in the change in just one week! We are going to keep going every week, and hopefully she starts opening up even more (she is shy around people).

Just wanted to share in my excitement!

WOW! 7 months ago?!

Ok, I haven't been very good at keeping up with this, obviously, it's been 7 months AND only 2 posts before that! Well, my baby IS a toddler now, and yes, the last 6 months went much faster than the first 6. This stage is SO fun though! She's talking, running, and so playful! I'm still at home with her, thanks to the wonderful blessing of a work at home job. We feel so blessed, in this economy, for Jason to have such a great job and for me to have found a job which I can work at home, and a legit one at that (I'm working for a local private investigating company). Atalie is now 13 months old, JUST got her first tooth, and very attached to mommy and daddy, but secretly, we love it! She's doing pretty good going into the church nursery though, which we are vey proud of, especially since we've been jumping around trying to find a church home. I think we have found one, and for a change, it's in our town, no more driving 30-45 minutes to church! So I'm going to post a few pics, and I will try my very hardest to post AT LEAST a few times a month!